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Russian war analysts claim that overnight Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea resort of Sochi may have been an attempt to assassinate Vladimir Putin following his anti-Western backlash...
Russian military experts are raising suspicions that Ukrainian drone attacks on the Black Sea resort of Sochi overnight may have been an attempt to eliminate Vladimir Putin.
The Russian leader was present in the city delivering an anti-Western speech while defending his ongoing conflict.
The drone attack resulted in the closure of the airport for five hours and prompted airstrike warnings throughout the night, following Putin's appearance on Thursday evening at the Valdai Discussion Club.
Defense systems used drones over coastal waters during the attacks that reportedly lasted from midnight until dawn.
The well-known military channel Two Majors stated: "it will be extremely interesting to see whether the attempt to attack Krasnodar Krai with drones was aimed at killing the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin], who spoke in Sochi the day before the attack. This could open up extremely interesting perspectives for the development of [the war]."
The media has raised suspicions that if Moscow were to officially determine that an assassination attempt had occurred, military retaliation could be extraordinary.
Video footage captured passengers stranded at the airport in Sochi, Russia's top holiday destination.
A flight bound for Sochi was diverted to Grozny, the capital of Russia's Chechen republic, due to a drone threat. Gelendzhik airport, located near Putin's £1 billion private cliffside residence, was similarly closed.
Putin's speech was filled with mockery of the West and claims that NATO is already engaged in war with Russia.
He smiled as he watched the suspected Russian drones causing chaos at airports across Denmark, Norway, Germany and other countries.
"I won't do it again," he joked, as he assured that he had no plans to invade NATO territory, a promise he had previously made regarding Ukraine before deploying his forces. "Many countries are at war with us, all NATO countries are at war with us," Putin asserted.
"They no longer hide this fact. And, unfortunately, there are also instructors from Western countries who are participating in combat operations. A special center has been set up in Europe, which essentially supports everything that the Armed Forces of Ukraine do. It provides information, transmits intelligence from space, supplies weapons and trains personnel.
"And, I repeat, instructors are involved not only in training, but also in decision-making and even in the implementation of these decisions. So, of course, this is a serious challenge for us," Putin said.
He insisted he was not “boasting” when he declared that the Russian war machine, which has made only slow progress in Ukraine, “is the most war-ready army in terms of the training of its personnel, its technical capabilities, its ability to apply and modernize them, to supply new weapons to the front line, and even in terms of combat tactics.”
The West had completely failed to isolate Russia despite imposing 30,000 sanctions and restrictions on its regime, he claimed.
"These attempts have completely failed," he declared, adding that "Russia has shown the world the highest degree of resilience, the ability to withstand the strongest external pressure. We feel legitimate pride in this, pride in Russia, in our citizens and in our Armed Forces."
He warned that any deployment of long-range Tomahawk missiles by the US in Ukraine would mark a "new phase of escalation", further damaging ties with America.
"Can Tomahawks harm us? Yes. We will shoot them down and improve our air defense system...
"Will this damage [Russia-US] relations in which we finally see light at the end of the tunnel? Of course it will," the Kremlin chief said. /Adapted from Daily Star/
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